When I obtained my Mk V Saloon I had little or no knowledge of the model, history or heritage of the marque. Once I’d spent 2 years coming to terms with restoring, running and attending some shows, I started to appreciate the whys and wherefores of the car, the Designers/Engineers, and Jaguar Cars as a whole. Again this Autumn/Winter the long list of fiddly, time-consuming jobs will be attacked with vigour (as long as it’s not too cold, naturally.) Only a couple of months ago I was delighted to discover that the Warwickshire Police used Mk Vs in the early 50’s!
Now then, I’m led to believe that the difficulty with Warwickshire Police Archives is that much of the paperwork was scrapped when the digital age took over, but at a local History Group meeting one of the members gave me a book entitled “Outline History of the Traffic………Warwickshire Constabulary”, based on those very archives and right on the front cover is a Mk V with two proud Constables alongside. Then at the same meeting, (this sounds like a spy’s meeting) another member, Peter Coulls, sidled up to me saying that his father was in the police force and was driven around in “one of your Jags!”
So, I asked Peter if he had any recollections of the cars and below is the information I gleaned from the very long- titled Police booklet and Peter’s recollections.
The earliest use of motor vehicles by Warwickshire Constabulary came after the Road Traffic act of 1934 brought in the compulsory 30 mph speed limit. Post WW2 and up to the 1950’s, they used various makes from Hillman 16 H.P, Hillman Aerominx, to Hillman 16’s and MG tourers. Interestingly, pre-war, Police cars were starting to be noticed to such an extent that local lorry drivers made a note of the registration numbers. So the cars carried duplicate plates and occasionally, the drivers would be ordered, over the radio, to change plates.
The 1950’s saw the Constabulary take on six Jaguar Mk V Saloons. The six divisions each had Mk Vs with an additional one held at Police Headquarters for the use of the Chief Constable. The saloons had heaters and were understandably popular with the crews that drove them. These cars had long lives, some serving 7 years, many being re-engined, with one achieving an astonishing 228,000 miles in service.
Registration Numbers of those cars bought
JUE 113 – 119 registered to Warwickshire Chief Constable, March 1950 onwards
KWD 308 – 316 registered to Warwickshire Chief Constable, April 1951 onwards
(Courtesy of Warwickshire County Records Office: Motor Taxation Records)
The Records do not show to which stations they were allocated, nor are there surrender documents indicating the fate of the vehicles after police service.
So that gives us the overall view of the Mk Vs in use in the early 50’s. It must have been quite a sight, in the rear view mirror of, say, a bank robber, to see one of the Black Marias roaring up behind them in pursuit. It’s worth remembering though, that at that time cars in general were getting faster and so Police forces were forced into buying such cars as the Daimler SP250.
Peter Coulls writes: “My personal recollections:
In my father’s time the Police Station was in High Street, Leamington Spa, (now the Polish Centre.) I believe he joined the then, Leamington Borough Police in 1947 as Constable 30. There were railway arches to the rear of the Police Station, in which the cars were garaged, also at some time used to house the Fire Brigade’s fire engine. We lived at 32 George Street only some 100 yards from the Police Station where he was a police constable PC 230 after the Borough Police had been merged into the Warwickshire Constabulary. He was eventually assigned to “Motor Patrol”. Although he had driven army vehicles in the Royal Engineers during WW 2, he was sent in November 1947 to Staffordshire County Police Motor Training Centre for Advance Driver training.
On a Sunday morning, if he was on an early shift he would wash and polish the patrol car as though it was his own, it was a good many years before he actually owned a car. This approach to police vehicles was carried through until the end of his career when he retired from duties as Divisional Sergeant at Henley-in-Arden.
We were now living in Cromer Road, Lillington where I would sometimes sit in the car when Dad was on “earlies” and had dropped by at home, to pick up his breakfast. When this happened, I would have to listen for the call sign ‘YJ 17’, – thankfully it never happened ‘on my watch.’ I remember one such occasion when he encouraged my Mum, who was of a nervous disposition to say the least, to come and look at the front of the car KWD 313. She was asked if she noticed anything different about the car, and as she bent down Dad’s co-driver Eric Hawkins pushed the switch to operate the recently fitted bell. She jumped back in surprise; I don’t remember what she said in reply to this.
The photograph of KWD 313 was taken on the occasion of the funeral of King George VI, on February 15th, 1952, near to the Pump Rooms on the Parade, Leamington Spa. The constable on the left was Charlie Essam.
The second photograph (below) shows my father examining the documents of a coal merchant, this was posed for the local paper, Eric Hawkins is the officer on the left. You will notice that untypically for a police officer part of ‘Motor Patrol’ uniform 
then, was jodhpurs and leather gaiters.”
Another photo showing the line-up of Police cars, presumably taken in the grounds of the Warwickshire Constabulary Headquarters at Leek Wootton, near Warwick. In all the Warwickshire Constabulary bought 19 Mk V jaguars for their fleet!
I would like to thank Peter Coulls for his personal insight into the big Mk Vs in service with Warwickshire Constabulary and Terry Gardener for his assistance with this article.
David G.P. Morse October 2022
Althorpe Street Garages behind Police Station (Peter Chater, 1987)